George Ott, Electrical Engineer in High Energy Physics from 10/01/1967 until his retirement on 11/30/2007, passed away on February 12, 2018. He was 78 years old. He worked on many experiments, most notably CDF and CMS. One of his last efforts before he retired was the responsibility for an extraordinarily challenging project to provide the power and control of the new state-of-the-art Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment calorimeter trigger electronics being built for the Large Hadron Collider at the CERN laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. The task involved the circuitry for and installation of 20 redundant fail-over high-power (7 kW) supplies controlling 10 7’ racks of completely custom electronics that had to be monitored remotely over the Internet. Mr. Ott devised a system of 50 custom trays of fans with very high airflow that were precisely monitored for any malfunction. He also developed and installed a system of temperature monitors distributed over each rack. All of this is remotely monitored as well as having local shut-off protection. Mr. Ott worked on the design, assembly, and production of this system. His work on this was very creative and innovative. There was no turnkey or prepackaged solution possible given the very difficult requirements and complexity of the project. Mr. Ott had to take the initiative and break new ground in developing his solution. The result was outstanding. George traveled to CERN and installed this system in the CMS underground cavern.

George was a happy, magnanimous person, always willing to help with anything. He will be missed.

The Physics Department lecture demonstration office (one of the largest in the nation) is looking for a fun, energetic, and loyal student with that “creative edge”: someone with a background in the physical sciences or within physics itself, someone interested to learn more about physics, physics demonstrations, and audio/video equipment. Initially for 10 hours per week, with the possibility for more hours. Freshmen are welcome and encouraged to apply. Work-study are welcome to apply. Work trial period of one semester, with the possibility of continuation throughout the summer and into following year(s).

Job Requirements:

Some general physics knowledge is a plus.

Have a desire to learn more about physics and audio-visual equipment

Must have a working knowledge of hand tools and/or willing to learn

Be able to listen and follow instructions, but also present alternative solutions to problems.

Be able to work both independently and as a team.

Having the ablity to work during most of the summer months, big Plus!

Having the ablity to work most Fridays from 3pm-4:30pm, big plus!

Working knowledge of Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and other microcontrollers would be awesome.

Able to lift and move equipment (50lbs)

Job Duties include, but are not limited to, the following:

Assist in the digitally record our weekly departmental colloquia on Friday afternoons and other lectures, and digital editing.

Roger Waleffe (working with Prof. Forest)
Matthew Frazier (working with Prof. Gilbert)
Colin Adams (working with Prof. Vandenbroucke)
The Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Research Fellowships support undergraduate research done in collaboration with UW–Madison faculty or research/instructional academic staff. Approximately 97 – 100 Hilldale awards are available each year.

Prof. Jenny Thomas elected a Fellow of the Royal Society

Thursday, June 8, 2017

Jenny Thomas, Senior Scientist with the IceCube group and Prof. at University College London, has been elected to a Fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of their outstanding contribution to science.

The department mourns the loss of Professor Marj Corcoran of Rice University

Monday, February 6, 2017

Dr. Corcoran was killed in a bicycle accident on February 3, 2017. Dr. Corcoran was the 2008 recipient of UW Physics Department’s Distinguished Scientist award in recognition of her work at UW-Madison with Prof. Albert Erwin.

Marv passed away January 28, 2017. Prof. Ebel was the 2016 recipient of the department’s Distinguished Service Award, recognizing his years of service in the Department and as an Associate Dean in the Graduate School.